halloween 2017

It was Halloween business as usual this year; not much has changed with our tradition, but what can I say? Our family is pretty boring, lol.

We started the evening off with our pumpkin head pizza from Papa Murphy's.

It actually looked normal and not demented, like in years past.

We even set the table to match the mood.

This year, in honor of the new Stephen King movie IT, Jeff decided to be a creepy clown. He wanted to be Pennywise, but opted for this costume when he realized he'd probably have to wear some makeup, which he can't stand.

Vanessa was over the moon when we found this Eevee costume online. Eevee is her favorite Pokemon, so when when we saw this on Amazon, her mind was made up.

I don't have pictures of our jack-o-lanterns this year because the were already wilting and molding, unfortunately. We carved them too early and had them sitting out on our back patio, so that did them in. But, since it was dark, we put them out on the front porch anyway.

Ethan spent most of his night down in the theater room, playing video games, although he did come upstairs to steal some candy from the candy bowl. And, Ryan was home, too, just relaxing in the living room, trying to edit a video on his laptop. He did end up going over to a friend's house later, but he was home for the most part, which was nice.

As for me, I was told by multiple trick-or-treaters that I had a very good selection of candy, so I'll take it as a sign that I did good, lol.

Happy Halloween!

busy saturdays

It’s inevitable to have busy weekends when you have kids; especially when half of the bunch are social creatures and into school activities and sports. In the past, our weekends have been hectic because of soccer and lacrosse; sometimes we had to split up because games overlapped. This fall hasn’t been to bad with Ryan deciding not to play fall ball because of his SBO duties, but it still makes it hard to get everyone together for family activities.

We decided today would be a good day to visit the pumpkin patch to hunt for pumpkins. We’ve dropped the ball on this particular activity in years past, so I wanted to make sure we at least did this one.

Unfortunately, Ryan had some prior commitments to attend to, and so it was just the five of us. :-(

We decided this year to hit the local family farm that’s relatively close: Petersen Family Farm. In addition to the pumpkin patch, they have a petting zoo, slides, a store, and some other fun activities.

The kids were uninterested in everything except the hunt for pumpkins, which was just as well, considering the activities cost extra. 

I did convince Jeff to go down the slide 

And even got him and Vanessa to pose for a picture.

I do have to say that the pumpkins were impressive. The smallest one we could find really wasn’t small at all, maybe what you’d consider a medium sized pumpkin.

Later this afternoon, Jeff had a soccer game.

Jeff played really well; he scored a goal and had one assist. He also had his coaches giddy and ecstatic on the sidelines with his crosses and outrunning his opponents. It’s always fun to see grown men get so excited about young soccer players. 😎

After such a busy day, we opted to carve our pumpkins another night, mainly because Ryan was still out and about with his friends, and we also have a bunch of jerk kids that run around our neighborhood smashing pumpkins. 😒

We’ll probably carve the pumpkins next weekend; hopefully Ryan will be free for us to torture him with family time, ha! Until then, we’ll call this a good day. 😁

the fire pig and double digits

How did this happen? My baby has hit double digits! 😱 He sure is a handsome kid, though.

And, he's spoiled. Scott didn't take the day off from work like he did last year, but he did come with us to IHOP for breakfast. Where Jeff got birthday cupcake pancakes with frosting, which put him on a sugar high for the rest of the morning.

Lucky us.

We also went shopping afterwards, a new tradition we've recently started. I really thought Jeff would buy another Lego set for Ethan to put together (he's our resident Lego engineer), but he ended up buying a Pokemon trainer box filled with lots of Pokemon cards.

Which ended up scattered on the living room floor, but meh. It's the Fire Pig's birthday, and the house was bound to get messy because of it.

We also took the day off from homeschool because who wants to do school when it's your birthday?

It ended up being a busy day anyway, considering Jeff had a soccer game later that evening. 

We love watching him play. And, he seems to be really enjoying himself in this competitive league.

For dinner afterwards, we took the family to Kneaders. Scott and I think it's interesting that Jeff likes it so much; he says it's because their ham sandwiches are really good, but I think the large sugar cookies that come with the kids meal has something to do with his affection, lol.

Sundays after birthdays are for celebrating at Papa & Tutu's. Jeff had one of his favorite foods for dinner (Korean Chicken) and then Tutu surprised him with this cake:

It matches the poop emoji shirt we found at Walmart for him and it made all of us laugh really hard because it was perfect for Jeff. Tutu is a genius!

Happy Birthday, Fire Pig! Thanks for filling our lives with laughter and smiles, and a whole lot of love!

10 Reasons Why I Love Jeff

  1. He's always on the go.

  2. He likes to steal Scott's side of the bed so he can snuggle with me.

  3. He makes up really good jokes to make me laugh.

  4. He's kind and thoughtful to others.

  5. He loves his siblings, even when he's trying to annoy them.

  6. His skills at soccer makes me proud.

  7. He's humble and soft-hearted.

  8. He likes to spend time with his family.

  9. His smile is infectious.

10. He's dedicated and loyal.